Hey dear readers, I've got 2 new exciting HF releases to tell you all about! One is from D.L. Bogdan, who I am a big fan of and the other is Brandy Purdy whose next novel is on Amy Dudley and set during the reign of my favorite Queen Elizabeth.

Brandy Purdy will be touring with HF Virtual Book Tours for this novel and I am thrilled to be working with her on this tour!

Orphaned at age eight, Lady Cecily Burkhart becomes the ward of Harold Pierce, Earl of Sumerton. Lord Hal and his wife, Lady Grace, welcome sweet-natured Cecily as one of their own. With Brey, their young son, Cecily develops an easy friendship. But their daughter, Mirabella, is consumed by her religious vocation—and by her devotion to Father Alec Cahill, the family priest and tutor.

As Henry VIII’s obsession with Anne Boleyn leads to violent religious upheaval, Mirabella is robbed of her calling and the future Cecily dreamed of is ripped away in turn. Cecily struggles to hold together the fractured household while she and Father Alec grapple with a dangerous mutual attraction. Plagued with jealousy, Mirabella unleashes a tumultuous chain of events that threatens to destroy everyone around her, even as the kingdom istorn apart…

The Queen's Pleasure

by Brandy Purdy

Release Date: July 2012

SYNOPSIS

When young Robert Dudley, an earl’s son, meets squire’s daughter Amy Robsart, it is love at first sight. They marry despite parental misgivings, but their passion quickly fades, and the ambitious Dudley returns to court.

Swept up in the turmoil of Tudor politics, Dudley is imprisoned in the Tower. Also a prisoner is Dudley’s childhood playmate, the princess Elizabeth. In the shadow of the axe, their passion ignites. When Elizabeth becomes queen, rumors rage that Dudley means to free himself of Amy in order to wed her. And when Amy is found dead in unlikely circumstances, suspicion falls on Dudley—and the Queen…

Still hotly debated amongst scholars—was Amy’s death an accident, suicide, or murder?—the fascinating subject matter makes for an enthralling read for fans of historical fiction.

Another Monday, Another Mailbox!! Mailbox Monday is a feature
where we gush about the yummy new books that now grace our bookshelves!
WARNING: Mailbox Mondays can lead to
extreme envy and GINORMOUS wishlists!!

In this debut historical thriller, an aristocratic young nun must find a
legendary crown in order to save her father’s life and preserve all she
holds dear from Cromwell’s ruthless terror.

When novice nun
Joanna Stafford learns her rebel cousin is condemned by King Henry VIII
to be burned at the stake, she makes the decision to break the sacred
rule of enclosure and run away from her Dominican Order in Dartford to
stand at her cousin’s side.

Arrested for interfering with
king’s justice, Joanna, along with her father, Sir Richard Stafford, is
sent to the Tower of London. Joanna’s father is brutally tortured by
Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester who leads the Catholic
faction bent on saving England’s monasteries from destruction. In order
to save her father, Joanna must submit to Gardiner’s will and become a
pawn in the struggle between religious extremes. Gardiner forces Joanna
to return to Dartford Priory with a mission: find the long hidden crown
worn by Saxon King Athelstan in AD 937 during the historic battle that
first united Britain. Gardiner believes the crown itself to possess a
mystical power that will halt the Reformation.

Uncovering
only dark betrayals and murder at Dartford, Joanna flees with Brother
Edmund, a troubled young friar, and with time running out, their hunt
for the crown leads them through royal castles, to Stonehenge, and
finally to the tomb of the mysterious King Athelstan under Malmesbury
Abbey. There Joanna learns the true secret of the crown, a secret
tracing all the way back to Golgotha and the Relics of the Passion. Now,
as Cromwell’s army of destruction advances, Joanna must finally
determine who to trust and how far she is willing to go to protect a way
of life that she passionately loves.

The past is a foreign country. This is your guidebook. A time machine
has just transported you back into the fourteenth century. What do you
see? How do you dress? How do you earn a living and how much are you
paid? What sort of food will you be offered by a peasant or a monk or a
lord? And more important, where will you stay?

The Time Traveler’s
Guide to Medieval England is not your typical look at a historical
period. This radical new approach shows us that the past is not just
something to be studied; it is also something to be lived.

Through
the use of daily chronicles, letters, household accounts, and poems of
the day, Mortimer transports you back in time, providing answers to
questions typically ignored by traditional historians. You will learn
how to greet people on the street, what to use as toilet paper, why a
physician might want to taste your blood, and how to know whether you
are coming down with leprosy.

The result is the most astonishing
social history book you’re ever likely to read: revolutionary in its
concept, informative and entertaining in its detail, and startling for
its portrayal of humanity in an age of violence, exuberance, and fear.

Giveaway Information...

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address (only comments with email addresses will be entered in the
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entriesbecome a follower of Passages
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Susanna Horenbout’s chance meeting with a jeweler from Antwerp pulls her
and her betrothed, courtier John Parker, into a deadly plot against the
King. Ever since Henry VIII’s sister Mary gave him the spectacular
Mirror of Naples, part of the French Crown Jewels, the King of France
has been plotting to get it back.

After the French king is
captured in battle, the secret deal struck for the jewel’s return is in
jeopardy—and French agents in London are taking matters into their own
hands. But the powerful Duke of Norfolk has caught wind of the secret
deal and sees the planned theft as an opportunity to rid himself of a
hated rival at court—even if it means plunging England into an
unwinnable war with France.

As Susanna and John Parker
desperately search for the jewel, trying to stay one step ahead of the
French, they're swept into a power struggle with men who will crush any
obstacle to get what they want. And with the fate of Henry's kingship in
the balance, they must figure out who Henry's true enemies are—before
it's too late.

Passages to the Past is excited to bring you a guest post by author Stephanie DraySong of the Nile and a giveaway of her latest novel in the Cleopatra's Daughter trilogy!

Take it away, Stephanie...

When the Isle of Samos was the Center of the WorldbyStephanie Dray

If it’s good to be the king, it’s even better to be the emperor. At least in ancient Rome. Unless your guards are waiting for you with daggers, or an angry wife feeds you poisoned mushrooms, you get to be the center of the world...wherever you go.

Now, when we think of the Roman empire--particularly the early Roman empire when there was still a pretense of a Republic--we quite naturally think of Rome as the center of the civilized world. Certainly, Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, would have wanted us to think of it that way.

However, the fact remains that once he’d wrested control away from the Senate and other quasi-democratic institutions, the government was always wherever he went. And in the aftermath of his victory over Cleopatra VII and Marcus Antonius (aka Mark Antony), the emperor spent quite some time on the Isle of Samos in Greece.

What was so special about this island? Well, for one, it had to be salt in the wound for those who had supported Cleopatra and Antony--because the Isle of Samos is where those two famous lovers made their doomed preparations for war. But it also had a lovely climate, and in spite of his stern Roman values, the emperor liked his creature comforts. (When fighting in the mountains in Spain, for example, he let his soldiers endure the cold while he vacationed down in Tarragona.)

Between the years of 22 BC - 19 BC, however, Augustus had another reason to move his court to the Greek island. Namely, he was preparing for war with Parthia to the East. He needed a relatively secure staging area from which to reorganize the Eastern part of the empire so as to make a stable foothold from which to advance. He had kings to appoint, taxes to levy, people to punish, and territorial boundaries to redraw.

In my new novel, Song of the Nile, my heroine believes that this is the perfect time to convince Augustus to restore her to the throne of Egypt. Like Cleopatra before her, she hopes to convince the Romans that she can provide them with grain in their long-sought war with the Parthians. It’s her experiences there, in Greece, engaged in a high stakes cat and mouse game with the emperor that change her forever.

So how much of that is true? Historically speaking, we have no idea where Cleopatra Selene was during those years before 19BC when she finally appears on the coins of Mauretania, but there are only three options. She may have been in Mauretania with Juba, though some scholars do question this idea and think she married Juba later. She may have been in Rome under the care of the emperor’s sister, Octavia. Or, as a ward of the emperor’s and a member of his court, she may have been on the Isle of Samos.

I chose the latter because it made for a wonderful showdown in my book--a titanic clash between a ruthless, complex, depraved emperor and the girl upon whose shoulders rested the legacy of Cleopatra. I think it made for a wonderful choice, and I hope my readers will agree!

About Song of the Nile (Cleopatra's Daughter #2)

SYNOPSIS

Sorceress. Seductress. Schemer. Cleopatra’s daughter has
become the emperor’s most unlikely apprentice and the one woman who can
destroy his empire…

Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive of Rome,
Selene pledged her loyalty to Augustus and swore she would become his
very own Cleopatra. Now the young queen faces an uncertain destiny in a
foreign land.

Forced to marry a man of the emperor’s choosing, Selene will not
allow her new husband to rule in her name. She quickly establishes
herself as a capable leader in her own right and as a religious icon.
Beginning the hard work of building a new nation, she wins the love of
her new subjects and makes herself vital to Rome by bringing forth
bountiful harvests.

But it’s the magic of Isis flowing through her veins that makes her
indispensable to the emperor. Against a backdrop of imperial politics
and religious persecution, Cleopatra’s daughter beguiles her way to the
very precipice of power. She has never forgotten her birthright, but
will the price of her mother’s throne be more than she’s willing to pay?

About Stephanie Dray...

Stephanie graduated from Smith, a small women’s college in
Massachusetts where–to the consternation of her devoted professors–she
was unable to master Latin. However, her focus on Middle Eastern Studies
gave her a deeper understanding of the consequences of Egypt’s ancient
clash with Rome, both in terms of the still-extant tensions between East
and West as well as the worldwide decline of female-oriented religion.

Before she wrote novels, Stephanie was a lawyer, a game designer, and
a teacher. Now she uses the transformative power of magic realism to
illuminate the stories of women in history and inspire the young women
of today. She remains fascinated by all things Roman or Egyptian and
has–to the consternation of her devoted husband–collected a house full
of cats and ancient artifacts.

Giveaway Information...

**To enter the giveaway you must follow Stephanie on her newsletter, Facebook page, or Twitter and please indicate in your comments which one you chose (honor system!).**

- To enter, please leave a comment below and include your email
address (only comments with email addresses will be entered in the
giveaway).

- Giveaway is open to US and Canada ONLY.

- For +5 additional entriesbecome a follower of Passages
to the Past. If you are already a follower you will
automatically receive the bonus entries.

Passages to the Past is pleased to bring you a guest post from author Gabrielle Kimm, whose novel His Last Duchess, was released on October 1st by Sourcebooks! In addition, the kind people at Sourcebooks have sponsored a giveaway for a copy of His Last Duchess to one of my lucky followers!

And now, please help me welcome Gabrielle Kimm...

I often get asked, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ My answer is inevitably something along the lines of: ‘It’s not really that I get ideas … they tend to get me.’ For me it works like this: the idea doesn’t exist, and then it does, and then it’s there in my head, and I can’t imagine it ever not being there. That’s probably no help at all to aspiring writers – but it is the truth.

It was certainly like that with the inspiration for ‘His Last Duchess’. One day I had no idea I was going to write a novel, and by the end of the next I had the whole plot structure, the cast of characters, the setting and the era clear in my head. It was a truly extraordinary day.

Although His Last Duchess is a historical novel – it has at its heart the ill-fated marriage of the fifth duke of Ferrara, Alfonso d’Este, and Lucrezia de’ Medici and it takes place in Ferrara in the middle of the sixteenth century – it all actually began with Victorian poet, Robert Browning’s monologue, ‘My Last Duchess’, rather than with historical facts. I came across the characters as Browning’s creations, rather than long-dead, real-life aristocrats, and it was only when I had the idea for the novel, and started researching that I began to piece together the historical truth behind Browning’s fiction.

The actual facts behind Browning’s poem are these: Alfonso d’Este (unnamed in the poem) married Lucrezia de’ Medici in 1559, and less than three years later the poor girl was dead, at the age of seventeen. Historical sources have mixed opinions as to what caused her death: some cite natural causes (tuberculosis, plague and anorexia being some suggestions), but far more historians believe that somebody had a hand in her demise. Most probably, her husband. Alfonso had for several years been under huge pressure to produce an heir, as the powers-that-be in the Vatican had declared that should he produce no legitimate issue, they would reclaim the titles and the lands, leaving the Este family with only the towns of Modena and Reggio in their portfolio. Alfonso would have been horribly aware that, if this were to happen and his rights to Ferrara removed, his extraordinary, hugely powerful, nine-hundred-year old dynasty would be utterly emasculated. In the end, of course, this is exactly what happened.

(Just by the by, in an extraordinary co-incidence, a direct descendent of Cesare d’Este, the cousin who ended up inheriting what was left of the duchy, lives in a village about two miles away from where I live in Sussex. How unlikely is that?! )

Browning’s poem is narrated by the duke. He depicts him talking to the emissary from the father of his second wife-to-be, standing before a portrait of his last duchess – poor dead Lucrezia. He is highly articulate –clearly verbally dextrous, despite his protestations that he has no ‘skill in speech’ – and he seems charming and cultured. He is polite and pleasant to his guest. At the start of the poem, he uses words like ‘wonder’, ‘depth and passion’, and ‘earnest’ to describe his late wife; you get the feeling that he is treasuring her memory as much as he clearly treasures this painted image which is kept so carefully hidden behind a curtain. But then he begins listing the poor woman’s faults, one after another. By the time he has all but openly admitted that he ordered her death, his very courtesy seems menacing, and you can easily imagine the raised heartbeat and the wide-eyed wariness in his listener (who must surely be hoping that he will be allowed to return home safely, having been party to this alarming confession).

For a time I was worried that the character of the duchess, as portrayed by Browning, would not be sustainable across a whole novel. He describes her as having a heart ‘too soon made glad, too easily impressed.’ She liked ‘whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.’ This worried me. I wanted to stay true to Browning’s creation, as I was specifically planning this book to be the back story to his poem, rather than just to historical facts, and, if I were to remain faithful to the poet’s description, it seemed to me that the duchess would be either an indiscriminate, promiscuous little hussy, or a sort of simple-minded, love-everyone sweetie – a Renaissance Pollyanna, if you like. Neither of these alternatives appealed to me in the slightest.
But then it occurred to me – in the small hours of one chilly morning - that the description of the duchess is not Browning’s. It’s the duke’s. And this description of her is being offered by the man who has just admitted to having had her permanently silenced. Did I believe him? Did I trust him? Not in the slightest!

I began to feel that the duke’s view of his wife was fundamentally distorted, either deliberately, in order to blacken her reputation, or unwittingly because of some psychological flaw in his make-up. Discovering what ‘his last duchess’s real personality was like, and finding out exactly why the duke’s view of her is so inaccurate, has been what has entertained me so much in writing this novel. I do hope Mr Browning would have approved of what I’ve done with his characters!

Thank you, Gabrielle, for stopping by with such a fabulous guest post!

ABOUT THE BOOK

The chilling story of Lucrezia de Medici, duchess to Alfonso d'Este, His
Last Duchess paints a portrait of a lonely young girl and her marriage
to an inscrutable duke. Lucrezia longs for love, Alfonso desperately
needs an heir, and in a true story of lust and dark decadence, the
dramatic fireworks the marriage kindles threaten to destroy the duke's
entire inheritance–and Lucrezia's future. His Last Duchess gorgeously
brings to life the passions and people of sixteenth-century Tuscany and
Ferrara.

Another Monday, Another Mailbox!! Mailbox Monday is a feature
where we gush about the yummy new books that now grace our bookshelves!
WARNING: Mailbox Mondays can lead to
extreme envy and GINORMOUS wishlists!!

Like most sisters, Marguerite and Eleanor were rivals.
They were also queens.

Raised together at the 13th Century court of their father, Raymond
Berenger, Count of Provence, Marguerite and Eleanor are separated by
royal marriages—but never truly parted.

Patient, perfect, reticent, and used to being first, Marguerite
becomes Queen of France. Her husband, Louis IX, is considered the
greatest monarch of his age. But he is also a religious zealot who
denies himself all pleasure—including the love and companionship his
wife so desperately craves. Can Marguerite find enough of her sister’s
boldness to grasp her chance for happiness in the guise of forbidden
love?

Passionate, strong-willed, and stubborn, Eleanor becomes Queen of
England. Her husband, Henry III, is neither as young nor as dashing as
Marguerite’s. But she quickly discovers he is a very good man…and a very
bad king. His failures are bitter disappointments for Eleanor, who has
worked to best her elder sister since childhood. Can Eleanor stop
competing with her sister and value what she has, or will she let it
slip away?

In a country still reeling from the collapse of the Roman Empire, the
young King Arthur and his wife Guinevere struggle to keep the barbarians
at bay even as they establish the Fellowship of the Round Table. The
spirited and outspoken Guinevere skillfully combats an accusation of
planning to poison Arthur in a country simmering with unrest and
scandal. But Guinevere's greatest battles are dangers Arthur cannot
see-ones she'll have to fight on her own. And all the while, she must
reconcile her thirst for freedom with her duties as queen, and her
growing love for Lancelot with her loyalty to her husband. Vibrantly
human and touchingly real, Guinevere reigns as a woman poised to
discover the true peril and promise of the human heart.

Sorceress. Seductress. Schemer. Cleopatra's daughter is the one woman with the power to destroy an empire...

Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive of Rome,
Selene pledged her loyalty to Augustus and swore she would become his
very own Cleopatra. Now the young queen faces an uncertain destiny in a
foreign land.

The magic of Isis flowing through her veins is
what makes her indispensable to the emperor. Against a backdrop of
imperial politics and religious persecution, Cleopatra's daughter
beguiles her way to the very precipice of power. She has never forgotten
her birthright, but will the price of her mother's throne be more than
she's willing to pay?

As Napoleon pursues his
plans for the invasion of England, English operative Augustus Whittlesby
gets wind of a top secret device, to be demonstrated over the course of
a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is to join
forces with that annoying American socialite, Emma Morris Delagardie,
who has been commissioned to write a masque for the weekend’s
entertainment. Even so, it should leave plenty of alone time with
Augustus’ colleague (and goddess), Jane Wooliston, who has been tapped
to play the heroine. Or so Augustus tells himself. In this complicated
masque within a masque, nothing seems to go quite as scripted…
especially Emma.

Not since The Red Tent or People of the Book has a novel
transported readers so intimately into the complex lives of women
centuries ago or so richly into a story of intrigue that transcends the
boundaries of history. Hannah Levi is renowned for her gift at coaxing
reluctant babies from their mothers using her secret “birthing spoons.”
When a Christian count implores her to attend his dying wife and save
their unborn son, she is torn. A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering
medical treatment to Christians, but the count’s payment is enough to
ransom Hannah’s husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea. Can she
refuse her duty to a woman who is suffering? Hannah’s choice entangles
her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the child and
threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the
plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life.

Beautifully told with exceptional skill, The Midwife of Venice
brings to life a time and a place cloaked in fascination and mystery
and introduces a captivating new talent in historical fiction.

Charles II is running for his life-and into the arms of a woman who will risk all for king and country.

Jane Lane is of marrying age, but she longs for adventure. She has pushed every potential suitor away-even those who could provide everything for her. Then one day, adventure makes its way to her doorstep, and with it comes mortal danger...

Royalists fighting to restore the crown to King Charles II implore Jane to help. Jane must transport him to safety, disguised as a manservant. As she places herself in harm's way, she finds herself falling in love with the gallant young Charles. And despite his reputation as a breaker of hearts, Jane finds herself surrendering to a passion that will change her life forever.

MY REVIEW

When I read and reviewed Gillian Bagwell’s first novel, The Darling Strumpet, last year {READ REVIEW} I knew she would be an author to watch, and boy was I right! Gillian’s sophomore novel of the woman who helped King Charles II escape from the grasp of his enemies and return to his rightful place on the throne of England is an extraordinarily engrossing read!

At twenty-five years of age, Jane Lane still lives at home, is unmarried and unsure of what she wants in life. All she knows is that she isn’t ready to settle down and become a wife to a man that she doesn’t feel passion for. When the exiled and penniless Charles Stuart lands in England to fight for his crown Jane’s royalist family supports his cause and her brothers take up his fight. She’s envious of the freedom their gender enables them and desires more than anything to be able to fight for her king, so when the opportunity arises and Jane is the one person who can help Charles escape from Cromwell’s army, she doesn’t hesitate to accept the challenge. Risking her life and the lives of her family Jane and her cousin race Charles to safety - sidestepping danger and capture along the way.

King Charles II and Jane Lane by Isaac Fuller, NP

Charles would not be Charles if he wasn’t charming a lady out of her chemise and Jane succumbs most willingly to his magnetic allure, and a passionate love affair between the two begins, ignited by the dangerous circumstances they find themselves.

I have read quite a few HF novels on Charles II, but none that dealt with this part of his life or his time with Jane Lane, so this was quite a treat for me. Jane was a fabulous heroine and the sacrifices she made to restore Charles to the throne are what earned her a place as an important figure in the history of England and I am so glad to have read about her. Gillian did a wonderful job of bringing Jane and Charles’s story to life, and it’s such an important story to tell because it shows us that despite the limitations of the female gender in the 17th century a woman can and did affect the history of the world.

My congratulations to Gillian for another fabulous historical fiction novel! I loved The September Queen, it had everything that I look for in a novel – drama, romance, danger and adventure. I devoured it in two sittings and my copy is now sitting comfortably on my keeper shelf. Highly recommended!

**Gillian's next novel will be on the life of the formidable Bess of Hardwick and I, for one, cannot wait!

I could not be more excited to be hosting my new favorite author, Susanna Kearsley, today on Passages to the Past! Susanna is here with a guest post in honor of the Sourcebooks re-issue of her novel, The Rose Garden!

I recently read Kearsley's novel, The Winter Sea, after seeing all of the rave reviews from my fellow book bloggers and fell in love with her writing! It was such a fabulous story and I am really looking forward to reading the rest of her novels. It is very thrilling for me to have here on my blog and I hope you enjoy the guest post as much as I did!

And thanks to the generous people of Sourcebooks, I have a copy of The Rose Garden to give away to one lucky reader!

And now, please welcome Susanna Kearsley...

Humanizing History

Every so often debates will spring up about the value of historical fiction, and how it compares to historical non-fiction, and whether fiction has any real place in the telling of history.

I won’t get up on my soap-box about all that here (although as both a former museum curator and a historical novelist, I have a few strong opinions) but I truly feel that historical fiction, when done well, puts back into history what the history books sometimes take out of it: the human factor.

Battles are not fought by kings and generals, they are fought by men, who breathe and love and hope and hate and dream, just like the rest of us. The paper records left to us don’t always give a sense of that, and history books concerned with “facts” (as they perceive the facts to be) are really only telling half the story.

One of the best examples I can give of this comes, not from any book I’ve written, but from one of the first historical novels I ever read: Jan Westcott’s The Hepburn. One of the major subplots in that novel tackles the tale of King James IV of Scotland and his mistress (and possibly wife), Margaret Drummond.

At the turn of the 16th century, James IV was in a power struggle with his English counterpart, Henry VII. Henry wanted James to marry Henry’s daughter Margaret. James was noncommittal. The reason for this was no secret, as described by historian Maria Perry in her 1998 book The Sisters of Henry VIII:

“In Scotland it was whispered that real impediment to James’ marriage [to Margaret Tudor] was his love for Margaret Drummond, who had been his mistress since 1496. He was said to be passionately attached to her. Many people believed that her death by poisoning in 1501 was deliberately contrived by courtiers who feared their king would never marry…while she lived.”

So, poor Margaret Drummond, along with her two sisters (who had shared the same breakfast as she had) died of poisoning, and James subsequently married Margaret Tudor. Those are the facts, and historians are limited in how they can present them.

It’s not that historians don’t allow James to have feelings. Some do. Some speculate that James was “stunned” or “devastated” by the death of the woman he patently loved, and some even go further to infer that, because he immediately rushed his and Margaret Drummond’s young daughter to a place of greater safety, and because for the rest of his life he continued to pay priests to sing prayers each year for the repose of Margaret Drummond’s soul, he must have loved her very dearly.

King Henry IV of France

Others, like the 19th century historian Thomas Wright, in his History of Scotland, give

James a very different reaction: “The chain was now broken with which James had so long been bound,” Wright states, “and he prepared eagerly for his marriage.”

But none of the historians, no matter how they try to get inside the head and heart of James IV, can do what Jan Westcott did. Here’s how she had James react to the poisoning of Margaret Drummond, the woman he loved:

“The king came through the curtained doorway. He knocked a chair out of his way. Eufemia’s face was hidden from him, Sybilla was moaning in short quick gasps; the heavy feet of men running sounded from outside. James took Maggie in his arms, he lifted her and carried her from the room where Eufemia already lay dead.

“My darling, my darling,” he whispered. He had taken her on his lap, and she was huddled against him, her legs doubled under her. She crouched on his knees, her arms around his neck, fiercely.

She could not speak. She burrowed against him. Mary came running with a bowl, and James forced Maggie’s head up. He forced her jaws open. She began to retch.

The doctor stood over her. This was the only thing to do; there was nothing more except to pray. He wiped Maggie’s mouth with a towel dipped in rosewater…”

And later in the scene, when Margaret’s dead and we are seeing through the eyes of Mary Gordon, there is this:

“James had lain Maggie on her bed. He was pulling up the white sheet. Mary saw his brown hands on the white linen.

He did not cover her face. Suddenly he tucked the sheet across her breast. He lifted her hands and crossed them. Then he bent down and Mary saw the broad shoulders shaking. Slowly she let the curtain fall back into place.”

It’s been more than thirty years since I read The Hepburn. I haven’t picked it up again until today, to read those words. But I remember every vivid image of that scene, and I have always had a soft spot for King James IV because of it, because I felt his very human grief and glimpsed him, not as a great king, but as a man.

Good history books can teach us many things about the past. Good historical fiction can connect us to it. And that, in my view at least, makes it worth writing.

About The Rose Garden...

Release Date: October 1, 2011

SYNOPSIS

When Eva’s filmstar sister Katrina dies, she leaves California and returns to Trelowarth, Cornwall , where they spent their childhood summers, to scatter Katrina’s ashes and in doing so return her to the place where she belongs.

But Eva must also confront the ghosts from her own past, as well as those from a time long before her own. For the house where she so often stayed as a child is home not only to her old friends the Halletts, but also to the people who had lived there in the eighteenth century. When Eva finally accepts that she is able to slip between centuries and see and talk to the inhabitants from hundreds of years ago, she soon finds herself falling for Daniel Butler, a man who lived – and died – long before she herself was born.

Eva begins to question her place in the present, and in laying her sister to rest, comes to realise that she too must decide where she really belongs, choosing between the life she knows and the past she feels so drawn towards.

*Susanna Kearsley's WEBSITE is really wonderful, so be sure to check it out for more information on the author and her novels.

Giveaway Information...

- To enter, please leave a comment below and include your email address (only comments with email addresses will be entered in the giveaway).

- Giveaway is open to US and Canada ONLY.

- For +5 additional entriesbecome a follower of Passages to the Past. If you are already a follower you will automatically receive the bonus entries.

Passages to the Past is tickled pink to welcome author Sharon Kay Penman, whose newest novel, Lionheart, is being released in stores tomorrow! Sharon has graciously stopped by for an interview and thanks to the publisher we have an ARC of Lionheart to give away to one lucky reader!

And now, the Passages to the Past interview with Sharon Kay Penman...

During your research for Lionheart, did you come across anything about Richard I that people would be surprised to know?

I think almost everything about the Richard in Lionheart will be a surprise to my readers. He certainly was a surprise to me. The Richard of legend is like a smoldering torch, glowering, dour, and dangerous. The Richard who appears in the crusader and Saracen chronicles is quite different—with a lively and sardonic sense of humor, unpredictable, playful, and shrewd. I found him to be very complex, a “walking contradiction” like that wonderful Johnny Cash song. He was almost insanely reckless with his own safety, but he was a cautious battle commander, careful with the lives of his soldiers. He was ruthless, but capable of magnanimity, too, hot-tempered but capable of compromise, very prideful—yes, arrogant—but still able to laugh at himself. Not at all the man I expected to find.

What do you most admire about Richard?

I think what I most admired about Richard was his unexpected rapport with his Saracen enemies. Because he’d been the first prince to take the cross, I suppose I was expecting a religious zealot. The real Richard turned out to be a pragmatist, unwilling to assault Jerusalem because he was convinced it could not be taken, that an attack would be sacrificing lives for no purpose. In this, he was utterly at odds with his French allies, who believed they would prevail because they had God on their side. But Richard opened talks with Saladin as soon as he arrived in the Holy Land, arguing that a negotiated settlement was the only way they could gain some of their objectives. I don’t mean to imply he shrank from shedding blood when need be; he was the ultimate warrior-king, after all, and according to military historians, one of the most brilliant battle commanders of the Middle Ages. But he was a realist and saw at once that the crusaders were facing insurmountable strategic and logistical dis-advantages. I also liked the fact that he was so interested in the Saracens and their culture, that he never demonized his enemies as so many of the crusaders did. He actually formed unlikely friendships with Saladin’s brother and some of his emirs, and even knighted several of them—in the midst of a Holy War! But while I find that admirable, his contemporaries did not, and he would pay a high price for it when the returning French spread the word that he’d betrayed Christendom by making a devil’s deal with Saladin.

Did you conduct any research traveling for Lionheart and if so, what was the most inspiring location you visited and why?

I usually do a lot of traveling for research, for I think it helps enormously to see the places I am writing about. Lionheart was the exception. Because I was under such a tight deadline, I was unable to follow in Richard’s footsteps. Fortunately in the Age of the Internet, so much more is available to writers. For example, I wanted to see what the cliffs of Arsuf looked like, and was able to find a video on YouTube which showed men kite-jumping from its heights. I can tell you which location inspired me the most, however, even if I did not see it for myself—Sicily. The 12th century was Sicily’s Golden Age; it was the richest kingdom in Europe at that time, and its rulers enjoyed a lavish and spectacular lifestyle. My research made me very eager to see the palaces of Palermo and the cathedral at Monreale for myself.

Can you give us a tease as to what readers will be treated to in Lionheart’s sequel, A King’s Ransom?

Poor Richard—he had no idea what he was sailing into when he left Acre on that October night in 1192. He’d find himself facing savage storms at sea, an encounter with pirates, and a shipwreck that left him stranded in the lands of his enemies, with only 20 men at his side. And the worst was still to come.

Can you take us through a day in your life while you are writing a novel?

I do not set regular hours for writing as some writers do. I work on a chapter at a time, and I do not put it aside until I am at least 90% satisfied with it; I do not do multiple drafts. When I am ready to begin a chapter, I try to keep the real world at bay until it is done. So for me, the best days are those when I have no distractions and can immerse myself in the Middle Ages; at such times, I wish I had a moat around my house. I might write late into the night if the chapter is going well; I surface from time to time to catch my breath and feed the dogs. Once it is finished, I resume my normal life—or as normal as any writer’s life is—and continue researching until I am ready to dive into the next chapter.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? And why historical fiction?

I cannot remember a time when I did not write; my first “story” at age 6 was about a horse named Queenie. In my teens, I even wrote two novels, both of which have mercifully disappeared from the face of the earth. I never expected to make a living as a writer, though; when we hear of starving artists in their garrets, they usually have writers as roommates. I stumbled onto the story of Richard III by chance, and soon realized I wanted to write about him. After spending 12 years with Richard—mainly because the only copy of the manuscript was stolen after I’d been working on it for over 4 years—I knew I’d found my muse: the medieval world. Only once have I considered straying; for a time I thought about writing a novel set during the American Revolution, an idea I reluctantly abandoned once I realized I’d need 9 lives like a cat to do all the research required.

What authors inspire you?

Christy Brown comes to mind, the Irish writer and poet who suffered from a severe case of cerebral palsy and learned to write and draw with his only non-paralyzed limb, his left foot. His autobiography by that name and subsequent Down all the Days made him a literary sensation. Another writer I admire is Christine de Pisan, a 14th century Venetian-born woman who used her pen to support her children and family when she was widowed at age 25; she is considered to be Europe’s first woman to write professionally. And then there is a playwright from Stratford-upon-Avon named Shakespeare—even if he did engage in character assassination in a play named after the last Yorkist king, Richard III!

What book would you like to read again for the first time?

What a fascinating question—the first time ever that I’ve been asked it. My two all-time favorite books are Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. I know, the Odd Couple, for they are totally unlike, aside from being extraordinarily well written. So I guess I’d choose them for the pleasure of discovering their riches all over again.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Never to forget that writing is subjective and no matter how brilliant a novel, short story, poem is, there will be people who do not appreciate its genius. Just as medieval knights needed armor to survive, writers need to be able to accept criticism and somehow not to take it personally. Otherwise the inevitable rejections that we all experience can be devastating rather than discouraging, and the editing process itself can be painful. I personally feel that there is not a writer, living or dead, who could not benefit from good editing. We are too close to our own work sometimes, need to have another perspective; of course, I am blessed to have had the same wonderful editor for thirty years!

From the New York Times-bestselling novelist, a stunning
story of a great medieval warrior-king, the accomplished and
controversial son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: Richard, Coeur
de Lion.

They were called "The Devil's Brood," though never
to their faces. They were the four surviving sons of Henry Plantagenet
and Eleanor of Aquitaine. With two such extraordinary parents, much was
expected of them.

But the eldest-charming yet mercurial-would
turn on his father and, like his brother Geoffrey, meet an early death.
When Henry died, Richard would take the throne and, almost immediately,
set off for the Holy Land. This was the Third Crusade, and it would be
characterized by internecine warfare among the Christians and
extraordinary campaigns against the Saracens. And, back in England, by
the conniving of Richard's youngest brother, John, to steal his crown.

In Lionheart,
Sharon Kay Penman displays her remarkable mastery of historical detail
and her acute understanding of human foibles. The result is a powerful
story of intrigue, war, and- surprisingly-effective diplomacy, played
out against the roiling conflicts of love and loyalty, passion and
treachery, all set against the rich textures of the Holy Land.

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